Three´s a crowd

One of the one hundred and twelve thousand reasons I go fishing is that I manage to grab a bit of solitude when I´m out there creeping along the river bank. In truth I would normally expect to have the river completely to myself but for the usual suspects who tend to hang out there – the egrets and herons and and all the the bugs and weeds and shrubs and fishes.

Every now and then I bump into another fly fisherman on the river but it doesn´t happen very often. Yesterday, though ,two of them showed up. Ironically, it was the prospect of solitude that was my primary motivation for this particular hydrotherapy treatment and I selected the goat pool on the Río Grande because the weather yesterday had not been particularly nice and I figured that the locals, who hang out along the banks during the weekends, were likely to have had second thoughts. After all, in the early afternoon it had been raining and that was surely enough to put the weekend visitors off. I figured that the fish were unlikely to have been too bothered by that rain. They were unlikely, after all, to get any wetter than they already were.

The best way to fish the goat pool on the Río Grande, in my opinion, is to work it upstream from the side opposite the big rock and the goat farm. It pays to stay well off the river and to do everything in slow motion. The pool is not all that big and, even taking things slowly, you are likely to have covered it fairly quickly. The fish usually lie in the shallows but they can spook very easily. The sweet spot is where the shallows at the head give way to the deeps and so I put a little nymph through this water under a yarn indicator and hoped for the best.

It was when I was doing this that I became aware of another fly fisherman and the opposite side of the river. This side is more elevated and offers a good chance to see if any fish are around but I have found that it is difficult to catch from this side. The fly fisherman was talking away to his buddy and soon made his way down to the river some 20 metres or so upstream of me. Both of these guys were Spanish and were obviously good fishing buddies.

I must admit I felt a little self conscious casting away in close proximity to the newcomers and, to be honest, I felt a little bit encroached upon. But then as I cast away and let my nymph drift over the sweet spot I realised that the Spanish probably have a different take on all of this than I do.

I have lived in Andalucía for close to 20 years and I have the highest regards for the people here. They are outgoing, friendly, welcoming and social. We have often noticed that, unlike us northern Europeans, who will walk miles for a private stretch of beach, Spaniards will all settle within yards of each other as though they were a colony of penguins.

The two guys upstream of me may seem to have been muscling in on “my” water but maybe that´s because I have a northern European take on things. I think that they were simply approaching the business of fly fishing with the same gregarious way that they approach life in general.

Anyway, because my movement upstream was essentially blocked by the new arrivals I just fished the nymph through the sweet spot one cast after another and was soon into a fish. It was the first I landed this year which would have made it, whatever its eventual size, the biggest fish of the year so far (and the smallest!).

It was in fact a standard-issue Río Grande gypsy barbel of about a kilo and I soon beached it on a sill of mud before slipping out the barbless hook and letting it go. I had been hoping for a picture but it was so muddy that it needed a good rinse and while this was happening the fish thought that it had had enough inconvenience for one day, gave a couple of good heaves of his tail, and sailed away.

Having seen the fish return to the river and realising that there was really nowhere much for me to go I tipped my hat at my new companions and slipped away myself.

The fish I caught didn´t stick around long enough to have its photo taken but here is a picture of the river a short distance downstream.

It`s me again. I must tell you about my New Year luck while staying in our newly acquired apartment in Andalucía recently. Being a life-long fly fisher in Wales I had checked out the Rio Guadalhorce/Rio Grande area not far away. I very much liked what I saw and wanted to learn more. Imagine my great delight at finding your blog. I was up all night reading it – brilliant ! I now hope to buy your book “Dry River” very soon and was thrilled also to watch you fishing your beats with John Langridge in the excellent Jara y Sedal TV film. You obviously know your rivers very well and your skill as a fly-fisher was clear for all to see.
Like yourself I have spent many years teaching biology. Now though I am long retired but, having specialised in fresh-water biology, I am still active in river conservation and have been a river guide on a well known Welsh sea-trout and salmon fishery.
I understand though that to get a freshwater licence in Andalucía may require one to take a three day course and a test – all in Spanish. But while I have started to acquire a very basic acquaintance with the language, at 71 years of age, and with my brain power according to my dear wife beginning to diminish somewhat, by the time I am in a position to qualify I will probably require support just to make it to the river bank ! Any advice though on getting the licence would be very much appreciated. Should I succeed in getting one the Rio Guadalhorce/Rio Grande will definitely be on my bucket list. I do promise though not to encroach too much on your fishing or hard earned peace and quiet! !

Thankyou very much Paul for wetting my appetite for becoming acquainted with the wonderful Gypsy Barbel !

Many thanks for your lovely message. Getting a fishing license here is a real drag but I will see if I can make a few enquiries on your behalf to see what I can do to help. If you are ever around and want to wet a line on the Río Grande or Guadalhorce I would be delighted to join you and don´t worry about encroaching on my peace and quiet! Let me know when you´re around. If you want to talk by email I am paulhogan@hotmail.com
All the best! P

In your last post you mentioned the herons and egrets that often keep you company on the river. During my visit to the Rio Grande I was delighted to see what appeared to be a pair of Great White Egrets. Knowing that they were not listed in my guides as a species found in this part of Spain I began to question my i.d. skills. These birds were Grey Heron size with long yellow dagger-like bills, dark legs and feet and surely far too big to be Little Egrets? I was beginning to wonder if the fisherman`s reputation for exaggerating fish size should also be extended to include river birds.

Then out of the blue a much smaller and very genuine Little Egret, complete with yellow feet and blue bill, flew in and landed alongside them. With creeping doubts about my honesty thankfully banished I could now look forward to reporting my sightings to bird watching friends at home. My understanding is that these Great Whites are harmless to man, are Asiatic birds now extending their range westwards, with the odd one even turning up near my home in Wales. It was a real pleasure for me to see these birds on the banks of the Rio Grande together with the Grey and White Wagtails, Green Sandpipers and Grey Heron. The sight and sound of well over a hundred Crag Martins feeding high above my head, Serin and Goldfinches calling like tinkling bells in the nearby trees all contributed to what you described as the “hydrotherapy” that we benefit from when on the riverbank – and virtually anywhere in the world.

It´s funny that you should say that about the great white egret because I saw one on Saturday just under the A357 on the Río Grande. I had an excellent look at it and it was huge. Like you, I checked it out when I got home and I got in touch with a bird watching friend now in the UK. It was definitely a great white egret and seemed fully as large as a grey heron! It struck me that it looked like a grey heron that had been spray painted white! I think a trip to the river may be in order soon! All the best, P